November 2007 Archives

The Moscow Restaurant near the Beijing Zoo and Beijing Exhibition center is the first western restaurant in Beijing. Built in 1954, it was built to demonstrate the brotherhood between China and Soviet Union. Similarly, Moscow has a restaurant called Beijing Restaurant.

I first got interested in this place from watching the movie "in the heat of the sun" (阳光灿烂的日子) in it, it was portrayed as the ultimate symbol for luxury and power during the tumultuous 60s in Beijing.

The food is actually not bad, I went in with low expectations as I was told by my dad that from his memory as a child, the restaurant was an over rated place that sold crappy food. I did enjoy my food, however I think it IS on the pricey side. Its worth going just for the atmosphere trust me.

went to the Nike Airforce event over the wknd. Thanks Evonne for letting me know.

Ok, I know its not THAT big of a deal. Campaign Brief isn't exactly Vogue or Wallpaper, its an industry magazine after all, but hey, its the first time my ad made it on a cover. Very happy about that.

Okey, now I know this happened a while back but I'd like to use this opportunity to say, WK beijing, you can take that "designer" position and shove it. ;-)

Jessica is finally getting married, big thanks to Du Yi, who is too nice to run away from her, hehehe. Ok, Jessica is one of the cutest accounts when I worked in Ogilvy, she has the kind of personality and character I love. She's patient, tolerant, intelligent, and simple. Same with her husband. I love them so much that I offered to be their best man in their Xin Jiang wedding in two month, it'll be ... interesting.

So besides this shot, they also opted for a "Pirates of the Caribean" theme. Which Du Yi turned out to be halariously "Xin Jiang Ku Er Ban Uncle" , click the link to enjoy.

I will put things I've heard that I think its interesting here. For this first entry, I have a short phone conversation I thought was quite interesting.

Setup: Person A is a 24year old retail girl. Person B is one of the upper management from Viacomm, who happens to become friends with this girl, no sexual tension, just genuine friends. She (Person B) also is interested in hiring her.

This conversation happened within days of their newly found friendship.

Conversation happened outside of XinGuang plaza Beijing

Person A: 我们店这周末晚上有一个酒会。你想参加吗？ ( We're having a cocktail party this weekend, would you like to come? )

Person B: 哦，这周末啊，我没有时间，我有一个跟英国首相的晚餐。 ( O, this weekend, I have to have dinner with the prime minister of UK )

Person A: 哦，那好吧。 ( O, Thats ok then )

Randomly felt like visiting the National art museum of China. Architecturally, it is one of the first waves of major construction in the city along with tian an men square and people's great hall, but often neglected for some reason. I saw Li Ke Ran's Chinese paintings, its alright. His son has fresher ideas I thought. Think Wang Nan and Meimei had better time than me though.

Thanks to old O&M's connections, I managed to watch 42nd street in Beijing. I'm especially thankful for this distraction, obviously wasn't enough but its a good distraction.

I enjoyed the show, it reminded me of home a lot. I enjoyed the live orchestra that was playing in the orchestra pit under the stage, something the Chinese haven't gotten used to. After the show, many people gathered around the pit to watch the band finish the last song, which I thought was a pretty cool sight.

Afterwards, Me, WangNan, and MeiMei went to Moscow restaurant, the first western restaurant in Beijing, I took polaroids, they'll be up later. A mostly pleasant day, minus the cold I felt for the rest of the night...

Picture was taken when I was in New York back in 03 when I was a lowly intern in MTV, walking towards 42nd street station every day I always wondered how the show was.

Thanks to our AD Lucy Dong, who lent her dvds to me, I watched a complete set of Chinese TV series for the first time since I started working in China. The drama is about a group of young friends trying to make it in the real world, and their own dealings with career, friends, and relationships. I didn't really get into it in the beginning because the production value of it is so low, that sometimes it can't really convey what script asked for, not to mention some really mediocre art direction and more-often-than-I'd-like cliche wardrobe (Think pink polo shirt with collars up). Its also a bit too clever for its own good, I don't like script writers that write really long and almost impossibly complicated lines for say, a confrontation scene, most people usually can't think when they fight. Now, having said that, I did watch all 32 episodes and liked the series. Its pretty clever and most importantly, original. The series isn't on a lot of channels now but it generated a lot of buzz already amongst the young people here, especially amongst those young professionals. I also got attracted towards the characters for the qualities I admire.

The series also triggered me to do something really lame over the weekend, for some reason I ran out of the house dazed and confused in the cold, and sms-ed someone I told my self never again to... anyways, its more on the funny side than sad really, I'm ok.

Sorry, I usually post poster up along with tv shows, but, the poster is pretty shitty in this case, and doesn't do the series justice, so I'll spare you the pain this time. You can easily google them these days.

Hope you're listening with your earphones now...

One silver on Cut through spot, and 3 finalists, ok I guess. :-/

Polaroid of the week, for this week and last week. Two encounters on my way back from work. I saw a bunch of Migrant workers just having fun watchin the traffic, there were four of them, absolutely captivated by the traffic going under Jian Guo Men. The other one is a lonely singer, sitting in the cold pedestrian underpass, singing his songs away in a deliberately, pretentious lonely voice.

This American Life, my favorite radio show is blocked in China :(. If you haven't heard of it, and live in China, you can still go here to listen to it, but the podcasting link no longer works on itunes, which sucks ass.

Thanks China... once again.

Its embarrassing to admit, but at the age of 28, I sometimes can still be amazingly boyish. Brash, hurtful, immature, and at other times, trustful, and, can be easily manipulated. This "trait" so to speak, or flaw, depends how one looks at it, had followed me consistently through out my life. Contrary to what many thinks, I don't mind it as part of my personality. It provides me with a simplified world view, a perspective adult often loses as they get older, a pure, idealistic, sometimes irrational and ridiculous narration of what happened to people around me, and my self. Well, it is this trait that helped me to dream up some work this year that got into London International Awards. Go Airbus Go! Also, a big thanks to Kazu Kibishi and Rad Sechrist for visualizing them, I will let you guys know if and when these will bring in some statues.

Its up Comments are welcome. :)